Brighton & Hove and Metrobus are making a bunch of changes at the end of this month which have now been published on their website.
Looking at it the main most significant changes that are being made seem to be:
• 3X - Brand new express route. It is basically an express of the 5/5A/5B from Hangleton to Brighton and then an express of the 25 from Brighton to the Falmer university campuses.
• 5B - Extra peak hour journeys being introduced and extra journeys to replace the 55 service.
• 20 - Slightly modified route serving new housing developments around Pease Pottage in the Crawley area.
• 23 - Being extended from Falmer to Woodingdean along the old 84 route that got withdrawn with covid. An odd circuitous routing but i doubt anyone will do the full end to end route.
• 25 - Will no longer serve Brighton University Falmer campus. The routing around Sussex University Falmer campus is being changed. All journeys all day long will now serve Northfield Crescent and all journeys will do a double run along North South Road but no longer serve Brighton University Falmer campus.
• 25X - This route is being brought back but very different to before. It is now even more express and skipping double the amount of stops it skipped before. It is also serving far less of the Sussex University Falmer campus grounds than before and skipping out Brighton University Moulsecoomb campus entirely.
• 54 - This is the ex Stagecoach route from Eastbourne to Uckfield that is being taken over. Similar timetable to present.
• 55 - Infrequent route that is being withdrawn. It basically duplicated the 5B with a minor route variation so not a big loss.
• 100 - The route through the Horley area is being modified to serve extra roads.
• 284 - Slightly increased service with a few extra journeys being added.
• 400 - The frequency is bring increased from hourly to every thirty minutes.
• 422 - Being withdrawn and replaced by rerouting of the 100 and 424 services.
• 424 - Extended to Park 25 in Redhill and a modified route in the Horley area.
• N25 - Will no longer serve the Hollingbury Asda roundabout and is being cut back to Varley Halls on that part of the route. That will probably save a couple minutes journey time.
A few other changes as well and the full details are now published on both websites:
On Sunday 28th September we are implementing improvements to our services, including the introduction of new express route 3X.
www.buses.co.uk
Route 400 increased to every 30 mins, route 100 serves Westvale Park, more 284 journeys & updates to 20, 420, 422, 424, 460, 480, 594 & 595.
www.metrobus.co.uk
These changes look like an utter mess. This will no doubt confuse everyone. The university services used to be so simple with everything following the same route and they are gradually making it more and more complex.
So there will now be five separate routings around the Falmer university campus grounds:
3X 5B 23 - Serves the Falmer Station stops on the main road and then serves the Brighton University Falmer campus grounds. Does not serve the Sussex University Falmer grounds.
25 - Goes on a big loop around the entire Sussex University Falmer grounds from North South Road to Northfield Crescent and then back to North South Road and down a newly served road to Falmer Village then Falmer Station and back to Brighton again. Does not serve Brighton University Falmer grounds.
25X - Only serves the far South part of the Sussex University Falmer campus by the Sports Centre and Medical Centre and then goes to Falmer Village and then serves the Brighton University Falmer grounds then Falmer Station and back to Brighton again. Only serves a small part of the Sussex University Falmer grounds and also skips out three stops within the campus grounds.
N25 - Goes on a big loop around the entire Sussex University Falmer grounds from North South Road to Northfield Crescent and then down Science Park Road to Falmer Village and then serves the Brighton University Falmer grounds then Falmer Station and back to Brighton again. This will be the only service left to properly serve both entire campus grounds.
28 29 29A 29B 29X - Stops on the main road outside the campus grounds.
Also the Lewes Road corridor will now have a ridiculous six different stopping patterns along the same exact route and road with different express services stopping and not stopping at different places:
5B 23 24 25 48 49 78 N25 - Stops at every bus stop and does not have any express sections.
3X - Non stop from the City Centre (Cheapside or North Laine) to Lewes Road Bus Garage then stops at Lewes Road Bus Garage - Coombe Road - Mithras House - Brighton University - Moulsecoomb Way - Coldean Lane - Falmer Station then all stops to Brighton University Falmer campus. Skips out the St Peters Church - The Level - Elm Grove - St Pauls Street - Melbourne Street - Sainsburys - Bates Estate - Ringmer Road - Wild Park - Brighton Academy bus stops.
25X - Non stop from the City Centre (Saint Peters Church) to Elm Grove then stops at Elm Grove - Melbourne Street - Lewes Road Bus Garage - Coombe Road then non stop on a massive section to Sussex House (NB) or Falmer Station (SB) at the Falmer university campuses. Skips out the The Level - St Pauls Street - Sainsburys - Mithras House - Brighton University Moulsecoomb - Bates Estate - Moulsecoomb Way - Ringmer Road - Wild Park - Coldean Lane - Brighton Academy - Stanmer Park - Sports Centre - Medical School Research - Science Park Road bus stops.
28 29B - Non stop from the City Centre (Saint Peters Church) to Elm Grove then stops at Elm Grove - Lewes Road Bus Garage - Brighton University Moulsecoomb - Moulsecoomb Way - Coldean Lane - Brighton Acadamy - Falmer Station then all stops to Lewes and onwards. Skips out the St Pauls Street - Melbourne Street - Sainsburys - Coombe Road - Mithras House - Bates Estate - Ringmer Road - Wild Park bus stops.
29 29A - Non stop from the City Centre (Saint Peters Church) to Elm Grove then stops at Elm Grove - Lewes Road Bus Garage - Brighton University Moulsecoomb - Moulsecoomb Way - Coldean Lane - Falmer Station then all stops to Lewes and onwards. Skips out the St Pauls Street - Melbourne Street - Sainsburys - Coombe Road - Mithras House - Bates Estate - Ringmer Road - Wild Park - Brighton Academy bus stops.
29X - Non stop from the City Centre (Saint Peters Church) to Elm Grove then stops at Elm Grove - Lewes Road Bus Garage - Brighton University Moulsecoomb - Moulsecoomb Way - Coldean Lane - Falmer Station then non stop to Lewes and all stops onwards. Skips out the St Pauls Street - Melbourne Street - Sainsburys - Coombe Road - Mithras House - Bates Estate - Ringmer Road - Wild Park - Brighton Academy - Falmer Village bus stops.
What an utter mess. How are passengers along a simple corridor meant to remember six different stopping patterns. It will just create so much confusion on which buses are stopping where. Why can they not make all the express routes stop at the same exact stops. They have done this in the most confusing way possible by having dozens of express routes with all different stopping patterns to each other along the same road.
Another thing i do not understand is this weird new 23 routing. Surely it would have made much more sense to split it and keep the 23 as it is (Falmer to Marina via Lewes Road) and just reintroduce the 84 (Falmer to Woodingdean via Falmer Road) as a proper half hourly service. Nobody would use such a circuitous and long route so surely splitting it in two would have worked better.
It will be interesting to see these changes in action but i can not see them being particularly successful. They have just created a confusing mess of routes. But we shall see how it works out.
It will be interesting to see if they get more 400s for the Regency route, I still see a lot of the BH5-branded 400s running on it, plus now they have the new 54 route as well.